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Poking tiny dents into solar panels makes them work better

By Leah Crane

PUTTING a dent in solar cells may make them more efficient. It could even pave the way to solar cells that break a fundamental limit on how much energy they can absorb.

When sunlight hits a solar cell, it imparts energy to electrons, allowing them to move around and create electrical current. Most solar cells are made of two different semiconductors next to each other, with the current flowing from one material to the other. But the solar cells are limited by the energy the electrons can absorb from sunlight. If each particle of light has too …